Identification and separation of nucleic acid fragments by size, such as in sequencing of DNA or RNA, is a widely used technique in many fields, including molecular biology, biotechnology, and medical diagnostics. The most frequently used method for such separation is gel electrophoresis, in which different sized charged molecules are separated by their different rates of movement through a stationary gel under the influence of an electric current. Gel electrophoresis presents several disadvantages, however. The process can be time consuming, and resolution is typically about 10%. Efficiency and resolution decrease as the size of fragments increases; molecules larger than 40,000 are difficult to process, and those larger than 10 million base pairs cannot be distinguished.
Methods have been proposed for determination of the size of nucleic acid molecules based on the level of fluorescence emitted from molecules treated with a fluorescent dye (Keller, et al., 1995; Goodwin, et al., 1993; Castro, et al., 1993). Castro describes the detection of individual molecules in samples containing either uniformly sized (48 Kbp) DNA molecules or a predetermined 1:1 ratio of molecules of two different sizes (48 Kbp and 24 Kbp). A resolution of approximately 12-15% was achieved between these two sizes. There is no discussion of sorting or isolating the differently sized molecules.
In order to provide a small diameter sample stream, Castro uses a "sheath flow" technique wherein a sheath fluid hydrodynamically focuses the sample stream from 100 .mu.m to 20 .mu.m. This method requires that the radiation exciting the dye molecules, and the emitted fluorescence, must traverse the sheath fluid, leading to poor light collection efficiency and resolution problems caused by lack of uniformity. Specifically, this method results in a relatively poor signal-to-noise ratio of the collected fluorescence, leading to inaccuracies in the sizing of the DNA molecules.
Goodwin mentions the sorting of fluorescently stained DNA molecules by flow cytometry. This method, however, employs costly and cumbersome equipment, and requires atomization of the nucleic acid solution into droplets, with the requirement that each droplet contains at most one analyte molecule. Furthermore, the flow velocities required for successful sorting of DNA fragments were determined to be considerably slower than used in conventional flow cytometry, so the method would require adaptations to conventional equipment. Sorting a usable amount (e.g., 100 ng) of DNA using such equipment would take weeks, if not months, for a single run, and would generate inordinately large volumes of DNA solution requiring additional concentration and/or precipitation steps.
It is thus desirable to provide a method of rapidly analyzing and sorting differently sized nucleic acid molecules with high resolution, using simple and inexpensive equipment. A short optical path length is desirable to reduce distortion and improve signal-to-noise of detected radiation. Ideally, sorting of fragments can be carried out using any size-based criteria.